


Make Me Stay

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos has a kid, M/M, divorced!Carlos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 11:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/939256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos writes lists. Lists of fears, lists of hopes, lists of discoveries...</p><p>Lists of people and things to blame.</p><p>(Why he came, why he can't leave, why he stays, even with the remnants of a torn up old life somewhere out in the real world.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make Me Stay

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote 100 mini-fics/shorts between the beginning of August and two days ago.  
> How did I celebrate?  
> I wrote this.  
> In the process, I discovered headcanons I didn't know I had and also realised that no matter whether this jives with the series that starts with Mistletoe or not (it doesn't, the timelines clash), I cannot give up using Ana and Magdalena.   
> So. Here goes.

Carlos was a maker of lists. Always had been.

When he stopped and put a lot of effort into it, he realised that it had probably started with Ana.

He was three, and a loud storm was flashing and crashing outside. It was thundery and very, very frightening. Ana - who was seven and therefore fearless - crawled onto his bed next to him.

"Hey Carlitos," Ana whispered. "You okay?"

Carlos shook his head. "S'loud. An' when it flashes, everything looks scary."

Ana kissed the top of his head. "Okay, well, the things in the room haven't changed. So what's in here, Carlitos? Make a list."

"Uh... uh, the chair, my toys, your desk, your bed," Carlos listed.

"Right," said Ana. "Every time the lightning flashes, just remember that it's still just those things, okay?"

"Okay."

Yeah. That was probably it.

Forever after that, Carlos made lists.

\--

_Things That Dragged Carlos to Night Vale_

_  
_ _1\. a lifelong fascination with discovering things_

_2\. unemployment_

_3\. Ana and Magdalena's incessant nagging_

_4\. a parade of people in stupid suits_

_5\. Dr Caroline Wright_

_6\. eight masked World Government agents_

_  
_For about a year and a half before he moved to Night Vale, Carlos didn't exactly have a job. Or, well, when he _did,_ it was one he was far, far over-qualified for.

(He was a barista at Starbucks. It was a dark time, nobody talks about it anymore.)

So the day that Caroline came and nearly knocked down his door, babbling about some town in the desert that he just  _had_ to check out, Carlos was ready to jump at the opportunity. Ana and Magdalena had been pestering him for months about finding a "real" job.

And after the whole debacle with Michelle, he was ready to disappear into the desert for a while.

"Seriously, Carlos, this place is right up your alley," Caroline insisted over pizza. "It's weird as hell, but everyone there is so used to it that it's all just part of daily life - nobody even cares."

"What kind of 'weird as hell'?" replied Carlos.

"Time-space distortions, a library that occasionally kidnaps people, sentient non-human creatures indigenous to the area, the whole nine," Caroline said. "Plus it makes me sad to see you not sciencing, and I  _know_ you'd be happier."

"I don't know, Caroline," Carlos said. "I'd be so much further from Mariana, and -"

"It's not like you ever get to see her anyway," said Caroline. "Come on. I'll be studying the sister town, Desert Bluffs, just a few miles away. It'll be fun."

"Fine. Fine, I'll go."

Caroline cheered.

She'd been Carlos's friend since college, and made a habit early on of teaming up with his sisters to make him do things. (Which is why both Ana and Magdalena called him the next day to make sure he'd taken the Night Vale offer.)

The day he was set to leave, he was grabbed off the streat outside of his apartment. On the way it was explained to him that his kidnappers were World Government agents and were escorting him to Night Vale.

"Your belongings will be shipped."

\--

_Things Preventing Carlos from Leaving Night Vale_

_  
_ _1\. genuine scientific interest_

_2\. a particularly rude/selfish space-time distortion_

_3\. a lack of practical knowledge regarding the exact whereabouts of the town_

_4\. the City Council/Sheriff's Secret Police_

_5\. guilt_

_  
_Night Vale was weird, Caroline hadn't lied.

And she'd been right, it was just his kind of weird.

There were days, though, where all the crazy-weird was a little... overwhelming, and he just wanted to leave for a while, take a break.

On those days, it almost felt like the town wouldn't let him leave. He could think of two concrete factors that contributed to that - the City Council and Secret Police actively preventing him from leaving, combined with the fact that Night Vale is slightly out of sync with the real world.

Oddly enough, though, scheduled absences - trips home, meetings with Caroline, visits to Mariana -  drew none of the same roadblocks.

"Have you ever noticed that it's impossible to leave Night Vale on a whim?" Carlos started asking people. Most people just shrugged and said they'd never tried, but Cecil -

"Only if it likes you," he'd said, smiling knowlingly, "and Night Vale  _definitely_ likes you."

Added onto the whole slightly disconcerting town-won't-let-him-leave thing was the guilt.

He'd arrived in Night Vael with nine other scientists.

A year later, there were three of them left.

Including Carlos.

His conscience wouldn't let him leave Night Vale until he found some explanation for _something_ about Night Vale.

Anything.

\--

At the beginning of Carlos's second November in Night Vale, Michelle called. (The hundreds of miles of distance between them had done _wonders_ for their friendship.)

"- and it turns out that the trip overlaps with Thanksgiving but I can't take Mari with me, and I know this is really short notice, but can you take her?"

"Yeah, of course," said Carlos, "I'd love to have her for the holiday."

Which is how he came to be sitting on his couch with Cecil, bracing himself for a bad reaction.

"What's wrong?" Cecil asked. "You look put off."

"No, nothing's wrong," replied Carlos. "I just wanted to talk to you about something. I probably should've mentioned it a while ago, actually..."

"What is it, Carlos?" asked Cecil.

"Ihaveadaughterandanex-wifethatI'venevertoldyouaboutandprobablywould'vekeptnottellingyouaboutonlymydaughter'svisitingattheendofthemonth," Carlos answered all in one breath.

"You have a daughter?" Cecil repeated. Carlos nodded, waiting for the inevitable I-can't-believe-you-never-told-me explosion.

It never came.

Instead, Cecil said, "What's her name? I bet she's just as perfect as you. Do I get to meet her?"

Carlos breathed a sigh of relief.

 

It turned out that Cecil was  _awesome_ with kids (or at least with Mariana). He introduced the 10-year-old to all sorts of games he'd played as a kid (that probably only existed in Night Vale and  _maybe_ Desert Bluffs) and gave her a tour of the NVCR studio.

She stopped Carlos in the kitchen after dinner on Thanksgiving.

"Daddy, Cecil's your boyfriend, right?"

"Yes. What do you think of that, Mari?" Carlos said, passing her a slice of pie.

"I think you should marry him or he'll get away like Auntie Caroline did."

"You've been talking to Tia Ana and Tia Lena, haven't you?"

"That doesn't make me wrong."

"You are too aware of this stuff for a 10-year-old kid." _  
_

"Gosh, Daddy. I'm a _girl._ I have to be. It's, like, my job!"

 

Two days later, after sending Mariana back to Michelle, Carlos flopped onto his couch next to Cecil.

"Thanks, by the way," he said tiredly, resting his head on Cecil's shoulder.

"It was my pleasure, Carlos," replied Cecil. "I loved it, she's great."

Carlos smiled.

 

_Things That Made Carlos Stay in Night Vale_

_  
_ _1\. Cecil._


End file.
